How’s your Motor Sports Betting Events? Last week, NASCAR stood alone as the major motor sports league with action.
In the Cup Series, NASCAR’s top flight, Christopher Bell roared to victory in the Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway despite only leading the final lap and edging out Carson Hocevar and Kyle Larson in a photo finish.
We’ve already had two three-wide runs to the finish this year, and this one brought Bell his 10th career Cup Series win – and his first on a track that rewards drafting.
Larson was pleased with his third-place result; he is still looking for his first win on a superspeedway in 48 tries, but this was just the 32nd that he had managed to finish.
He led 12 laps on the day but ran into Austin Cindric with three laps left to send things to overtime. Hocevar bumped Blaney, spinning him out, with 27 laps left, and both he and Ross Chastain had some tense discussions with the runner-up in the moments after the race.
Drama is nothing new in stock car racing, of course. Let’s take a look at this week’s motor sports calendar and talk about some of the better sports betting options out there for you.
Motor Sports Betting Events for the Weekend, What events are happening?
NASCAR this Weekend at Circuit of the Americas (Austin, TX)
Xfinity Series: Focused Health 250 (Saturday, 2:30 pm ET) Cup Series: EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix (Sunday, 3:30 pm ET)
This is the fifth NASCAR trip to Circuit of the Americas in five years since the organization came to Austin in 2021. This time, NASCAR will use the National Course layout for the first time.
This makes for a 2.3-mile lap, just over a mile shorter than the course that NASCAR has used in the past. This event will run 95 laps, in stages of 20, 25 and 50 laps.
The top speed will be limited because of 20 difficult turns and a fairly technical layout; this course will look and respond a lot like some of the European F1 tracks.
Last year, the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix came down to a three-driver battle featuring Ty Gibbss, Christopher Bell and William Byron. Byron used the closing laps to move into the lead and win at COTA for the first time.
^NTT IndyCar: Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg (St. Petersburg, Florida)
When: Sunday, 12:00 pm ET
Pato O’Ward looks to defend his title here on a course that will run through the streets of St. Petersburg and will include part of the runway at Albert Whitted Airport. The long frontstretch heads into a tight right Turn 1 before a quick left.
Those two back-to-back turns have caused all kinds of havoc over the years. Drivers will complete 100 laps on a 1.8 mile course with 14 turns (5 lefts and 9 rights).
^MotoGP: PT Grand Prix of Thailand
Moto2 Race (Sunday, 1:15 am ET) MotoGP Race (Sunday, 3:00 am ET)
Chang International Circuit opened in the town of Buriram in 2014, and MotoGP made its debut here in 2018. The course features 12 turns and three fairly long straightaways – the one between Turns 1 and 3, the one between Turn 3 and 4, and the one between Turn 12 and Turn 1.
The last time MotoGP started a season in Southeast Asia was 2003, when the Japanese Grand Prix got the ball rolling. The 2025 season begins without defending champion Jorge Martin who had to miss testing because of injury and then had a complex fracture to his left on hand during training on Monday. As of this writing, there is no timetable for his return. This means that the Aprilia team will lean heavily on its other new recruit, Marco Bezzecchi, to lead the team. During the preseason, he has fared well, including a third-place overall finish at Buriram testing and a solid sprint simulation on the final day.
Marc Marquez
He joined the Ducati team heading into 2025, and after his lengthy recovery from injury, he dominated the last day of the test at Buriram. A big question for the team is how Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia will get along as teammates. In 2024, they had several on-track confrontations that appeared to show some bad blood. The team looked like it would rely on the 2024 chassis and aero package, but there are some updates for this season that have supposedly improved the bike – and Marquez definitely opened some eyes at testing, winning both days and dominating the race simulation on the last day as well.
Yamaha Team
They looked solid in winter testing in terms of race pace and one-lap speed for the M1. Along with Honda, Yamaha did not have any riders on the podium at all in 2024, and Honda didn’t get to triple digits in constructors’ standings as both of the Honda riders were in the basement of the points standings. Fabio Quartararo returns to Yamaha and will be with them through 2026 at least; the 2021 world champion now has a two-year victory drought, but the improvements on his bike should make him optimistic.
^Formula 1 – Aramco Pre-Season Testing (Sakhir)
After the first day of pre-season testing in Bahrain, Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) and Lando Norris (McLaren) were the fastest drivers in the morning and afternoon sessions, respectively. Overall, Norris had the fastest lap time of any driver with 1:30.430 seconds. That was 0.157 seconds faster than George Russell of Mercedes.
Max Verstappen came in third, with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz rounding out the top five. Sainz’s result was particularly noteworthy as he debuts with Williams in 2025. Where was Lewis Hamilton, who made a well-publicized move from Mercedes to Ferrari? He finished in 13th – well behind his teammate, Leclerc. Hamilton was the fifth-fastest driver among the morning participants, though. That session produced, on the whole, slower times than the afternoon session.
^How can we bet on these events?
You can put down wagers on every event in this list except for the F1 testing. MotoGP, NASCAR, and NTT IndyCar all will show up on sportsbooks. Some of the larger books will also offer winning odds and top-three odds on the Xfinity Series race as well, and they are likely to go into more wide-ranging props for the Cup Series, MotoGP and IndyCar events.
Depending on the book, you can find odds to win, odds to finish in the top three, the top five and the top ten in some cases. There will also be head-to-head offerings, where you pick between a matchup between two drivers/riders, depending on the book as well.
Remember that there are a lot of factors that can play into race winners that have nothing to do with the individual driver’s skill. Wrecks can catch entire groups of drivers on superspeedways. On road courses, contact can cause drivers and riders to spin out.
It can take just one accident to end a driver or rider’s day. In individual events like this, these factors are more difficult to overcome than, say, a bad shooting day from one player on a basketball team that you’ve decided to wager on. Bear these factors in mind when setting your wager levels.
^Motor Sports Betting Events provided by Xbet
Motor Sports Betting Events: What are the winning picks for this weekend?
NASCAR
In the Cup Series event, Tyler Reddick is one of the best road course performers over the last few seasons. On road courses, he has three wins among 15 top-ten finishes and 200 laps led on road course races, averaging a finish of 12.4. He won here two years ago to get his first victory at COTA. In four starts here, he has one pole, one win and three top-five finishes with 44 laps led, and he has never failed to finish in the top ten, putting together a 5.0 average finish.
William Byron
Byron has won twice on NASCAR road courses already and has started 2025 in fine fashion. At COTA, he has won the pole here the last two years and won the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix in 2024. Over his last two outings here, he has 70 combined laps led, and he’s been showing speed ever since the 2025 season got underway.
Ross Chastain
Chastain has improved on road courses since he came over to Trackhouse Racing, and COTA has been a favorite venue for him. He’s raced here four times and has been right here at the end each time, including a win in 2022 when he outdueled Alex Bowman and road course specialist AJ Allmendinger in the last lap. He has led 45 total laps here over four races with an average finish of 4.0
Looking for a slightly darker horse?
Consider Chase Elliott. He hasn’t won on a road course the lasts couple of seasons, but he has seven wins on road courses and has finished in the top ten in two-thirds of the road course races he has started. He led 18 laps on road courses in 2024 and had three top-ten finishes in six starts. He won here four years ago and came in fourth in 2022.
^NTT IndyCar
Josef Newgarden is the favorite and has won here before. He had a victory taken away from him in 2024 because of a technical penalty. An interesting pick in the team prop is McLaren. They’re not just making inroads in F1, where they won the constructors’ championship in 2024, but they’re also putting together an increasingly solid group in IndyCar. They have picked up wins at this course in the past.
Christian Lundgaard
If you’re looking for a slightly darker horse than Newgarden or the defending champion, O’Ward, take a look at Lundgaard. At one point, he was sponsored by Renault and looked headed to race in F1, but then his career took a giant left turn. Even so, he has made the most of his opportunities. The young Danish driver at last has a car that can match his talent.
Andretti could disappoint in 2025 after TWG’s takeover and last year’s misfortunes, with Colton Herta struggling to find momentum. Will Power might also underperform, as his future with Team Penske remains uncertain. Although he has engaged with Fernando Alonso’s management to clarify his situation, distractions from his contract may hinder his early season performance.
^MotoGP
The sport is opening a new season. Just about every rider had two days of testing at the Buriram course before the Thai Grand Prix. When testing has taken place on the series’ first course, it’s been more common to see first-time winners to start a season. This happened with Quartararo at the Spanish Grand Prix.
Alex Marquez
Marquez secured victories at Barcelona and Sepang tests and nearly won in Buriram, where brother Marc took the victory. The younger Marquez has shown impressive speed in both qualifying and race pace. Meanwhile, KTM’s Pedro Acosta, seeking his first career win, displayed strong performance during his rookie season and had his RC16 performing well in the Buriram test despite issues with tire wear, raising questions about his race endurance.
Rider Contender Odds (+10000 or better)
- Marc Marquez -184
- Francesco Bagnaia +200
- Pedro Acosta +1175
- Jorge Martin +1350
- Fabio Quartararo +1825
- Alex Marquez +3400
- Fabio Di Giannantonio +4100
- Enea Bastianini +4800
- Marco Bezzecchi +5000
- Brad Binder +7500
- Franco Morbidelli +7500
- Fermin Aldeguer +7500
- Maverick Vinales +12000
Get ready for another season on the edge of your seat🔥 2025 is here and it starts with the #ThaiGP 🇹🇭#MotoGP pic.twitter.com/H6s5WYDPIe
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) February 23, 2025
NASCAR Odds to Win
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